FORD, HORATIO CLARK

FORD, HORATIO CLARK (25 Aug. 1853-25 Aug. 1915), a descendant of early settlers of New England and Cleveland, was a prominent lawyer, entrepreneur, banker, and civic leader. His father, Horatio Cyrus Ford, came from Cummington, MA in 1837 to (old) East Cleveland, where he married Martha Cordelia Cozad, granddaughter of SAMUEL COZAD. Horatio Clark was born in the family farmhouse, on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Adelbert Road, where he also died on his sixty-second birthday, in the same room where he was born. He married Ida May Thorp in 1877. They had six children, Mildred (Cobb), Horatio, Lauretta, Cyrus, David, and Baldwin. The Ford house and land were later acquired by Western Reserve University. Flora Stone Mather College (1888), The Franklin Thomas Backus School (1892), and the School of Applied Social Science (1916) were all started in the former Ford home.

"Clark" Ford was educated in CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS, attended Oberlin College, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1875, and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1878. Active as a lawyer from then on, he was senior partner of Ford, Snyder, and Tilden when he died. He was a banker and a street railway and real estate developer. He developed the Cleveland and Eastern Railway Company, was active in the street railway business in Syracuse, NY, and became an officer of the Wheeling, (W.Va.) Traction Company. In real estate, he was responsible for the building of the Williamson Building, then the tallest building in the state. In related activities, he was a director of the Cuyahoga Telephone Company.

In banking, he founded or was a director of the Garfield Savings Bank, the Western Reserve Trust Company, the Metropolitan National Bank, and the East End Savings and Trust Company, which later merged with the Cleveland Trust Company, where he became a charter director (1894). Ford was elected to the Cleveland Common Council (1879-1885) and served as its vice president. Ford was a lifelong member of the EUCLID AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. He held national offices in this denomination, organized the Congregational City Missionary Society, and was a trustee of Oberlin College.